The Net Buzz Words of 2004
Dec. 31, 2004 — -- In this week's "Cybershake," we take a look back at what was on top of most Web surfers' minds in 2004.
Another year is coming to an end and search engine Lycos has its annual retrospective of what was hot on the Web in 2004. Like previous lists, culled from its weekly tab called "The Lycos 50," Lycos' top search terms of this year was a mix of old and new.
Among the new entries of top search words had to do with two new top pop culture trends -- poker and tattoos.
Poker was the 10th most-popular search term on Lycos because "people were fascinated by television shows" devoted to the card game says Dean Tsouvales, editor of Lycos' online Lycos 50 list. "Old school games were making it big this year."
People were also turning to the Web for tattoos, seventh on the list of top 10 terms, because of growing interest in skin art.
"People are looking to the Web to find the different types of tattoos that are interesting," says Tsouvales. "It's a great place for them to research what they look like and in some cases they can imagine what they look like on their own skin."
But some of the "usual suspects" from last year made it high on the list of the most searched for this year.
"American Idol" singer Clay Aiken rocketed from being the 24th most-searched term in 2003 to third place this year. Meanwhile, Pamela Anderson dropped down one place to ninth.
Paris Hilton also continued to reign in the top five terms, jumping two points to the No. 2 slot this year.
"We saw the evolution of Paris Hilton over the course of the year when we saw initially it was just the fad of her sex video," says Tsouvales. But, "She's done an amazing job of marketing herself -- from her clothing line to a perfume to jewelry -- it's definitely more than just sex."
Still, some of the top search terms for 2004 also had to do with personalities that were suddenly thrust into the public limelight.
